


Mr. and Mrs. Trotter

by yolopandas2014



Category: James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
Genre: 1950s, Backstory, College, Dover, England - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, I invented their names, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 07:36:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4051747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yolopandas2014/pseuds/yolopandas2014
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of how small town Jane Matthews became acquainted with rich boy Henry Trotter; and of the love that sparked between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jane

"Mum! I'm off!"

Yelled 19 year old Jane Matthews. Her mother, a plump and petite woman, appeared in the doorway of the Matthews small, and quite dirty, farmhouse. The short, messy haired woman trotted over to her daughter, tiny tears glistening in her eyes. She embraced her and began to weep. 

"I'll only be gone a couple years. And I promise to write."

Her mother, wiping her eyes and nose, blubbered something incomprehensible about how Jane had grown up too fast, and that she should stay with her family instead of going off to college. Jane chuckled, moved some of her mother's bushy brown hair out of her mouth, and let a single tear fall from her cheek and onto her mother's frock. She gave the short plump woman one last tight squeeze, and escaped from her embrace. Jane quickly fixed her wrinkled, grey, hand-me-down overcoat and re-adjusted her cheap, faux-leather traveling gloves so that she would resemble all the pristine townspeople of London. The Matthews lived in a small farm cottage in the quiet town of Dover, next to the seashore. Almost every other day, Jane would go down next to the white cliffs, stare out across the ocean, and dream of going to London to start her life anew. Now, after years of working many miscellaneous jobs and raising enough money, she finally got accepted into a sophisticated college, right in the middle of London. Jane stepped into the rusted, creaky old town car and gave one last wave to her mother. Just then, her nasty sisters emerged, taunting her and laughing.

"Goodbye Spiker, goodbye Sponge! Promise you won't write?!"

Jane shouted through cupped hands. Spiker and Sponge were the nicknames that Jane had given her horrible sisters when she young. Now they stood behind Jane's mode of transportation, inhaling the exhaust and frantically fixing their hair and clothes. Out of the back window, Jane saw her sisters fighting and her mother waving a dishcloth in the air at her. She smiled, wiped her cheeks, and gazed out the window at the grassy British scenery thinking aloud:

"I wonder who I'll meet in college."


	2. Henry

 

"Son, you've got to be more serious about this. It's your future that we are dealing with here!"

Recently turned, 20 year old Henry Trotter rolled his eyes at his father's speech.

 "There's really no rush father, i've still got a couple days until I start college. Just let me relax."

He exclaimed while slumping down into the burgundy arm chair, that was placed in front of his father's large wooden desk. 

 "All right, All right. But please keep in mind your family, and the future of this estate."

Henry sighed and nodded, then got up and left his father's presence. He walked down the long nature-wallpaper covered hall, kicking at the rug and dragging his hands along the dark crimson curtains that lined the many windows. He finally got to the large, engraved wooden doors that hid his bedroom, built in to the end of the long decorated corridor. He opened the doors slowly, so as to suppress the insensitive creaking noises it made. He slipped inside, shut the doors, and leaned against them. Closing his eyes and listening to the echoes of the doors, he remembered all the times his father had lectured him as a child. Henry was born into a rich and privileged family. His father and mother both worked for the queen, and they owned quite a large estate just on the outskirts of London. Henry grew up mostly by care of a nanny. But they didn't have quite as many houseworkers as other families might have. He often heard lectures from his father about taking responsibility of the estate and housing the Trotter legacy. Still now, Henry hears those tiring speeches. It was getting close to nighttime, and Henry grew tired. He stripped off his dark brown overcoat and flopped down onto his cloud-like bed. He turned to one side and thought aloud:

 "I wonder who i'll meet in college."


	3. College

Rays of hot white sunlight broke through the cloud barrier above the black, rusted taxi-cab that Jane had just escaped from. She fanned herself with her collar and paid the driver for his services. The vehicle took off, leaving a thick cloud of exhaust to encircle Jane. As the smoke cleared she saw a ten story high castle-like building. It was a pale brown colour, with intricate stonework and well defined windowsills. On the lawn in front of it were several large groups of men. Men who wore neatly pressed pants, soft looking sweater-vests, and shiny black loafers. Their hair was sleek, almost as if it were made of glass. A couple of boys took notice of her and found an interest in her current location.

"Oy, you lost?"

One of them said, stopping a couple steps away from her and placing his hands into his pockets. She shook her head, letting a rebellious curl fall from her up-do. The boy took a couple steps closer and reached a hand for Jane's curl.

"You know this is the boys' building right?"

He said, letting her curl bounce upwards, skimming the side of her flushed face. She had forgotten that this college was divided into two buildings: the boys' and the girls'. Both buildings were connected by a library.

"Yes, and I am very sorry to have bothered you gentlemen, but could you point me in the right direction?"

A devilish smirk appeared on the well dressed college student's face, looming over her like a hawk ready to dive in for the kill.

"Better yet, i'll walk you there."

He snuck his arm around her waist and pulled her towards him. Jane was not a very tall woman, so her waist curved around this mystery boy's hip. She could hear the men behind her snickering. He pointed in the direction of the girls' building and began to pull Jane along with him. She started to feel hot and extremely unnerved. 

"I can find my way there on my own, thank you."

Her arms managed to find enough strength to push the man away. He stumbled to the side a bit, and his friends laughed. He scoffed, fixed his the collar of his sweater, and examined Jane's glassy eyes.

"You'll be back my little lamb."

He whispered into her ear, causing a chilling shiver to crawl up her spine. Her trembling legs managed to help turn her around, only she was greeted by an unwelcome tap on her behind. The culprit was none other than this revolting man. She let out a faint, but noticeable, whimper of fear. Without any control, she spun on her heel and whacked the boy on the cheek with her glove. His face turned red with fury; And on instinct, Jane began to run away. Away from the boys, and straight into an immense decorated courtyard. 

* * *

A few minutes earlier, Henry had arrived on the girls' side of the college. He stuck his head into his father's shiny, auburn coloured town car and grabbed his books from on the seat.

"You, driver. My life would be a hell of a lot easier if you could drop me off on the other side of the campus?"

He smiled sarcastically, and leaned into the rolled down window. 

"Sorry sir. I have another engagement I must attend to."

The chauffeur tipped his cap at Henry, and pulled away from the curb, leaving nothing but a small puff of smoke. Henry turned towards the tall college building and sighed. The sun had momentarily disappeared behind a cluster of white clouds as Henry began his trek to the other end of the campus. There were scattered groups of neatly dressed women. All of whom were huddled together, whispering and giggling as the peeked in Henry's direction. He rolled his eyes and ignored the nosy cliques as best he could. His gaze traveled down to the sidewalk in front of him as he neared the end of the girls' building and the beginning of the courtyard. Someone managed to step in front of him, because he had just run into a young girl. She tripped forward, and the tight blonde curls on her head bounced every which way. She stood back up, regained her balance and patted down the skirt of her floral print dress. 

"Watch where you're going next ti-..."

She must have recognized Henry in some way because the annoyed prissy expression she wore had morphed into that of content surprise.

"Y-you're the son of the Trotter family! My goodness I had no idea, I'm.. very sorry."

She had begun frantically wiping at Henry's shirt. She even straightened his bowtie for him.

"It's quite all right. I'll be on my way now."

The blonde stepped to the side and let him pass. As he did, the faint, yet noticeable sound of leather on skin rang through the campus. Someone had just been slapped. The noise came from the boys' building. The conclusion that Henry had come to was that, one of the boys had started a fight. He didn't want to miss the first quarrel of the year, so he decided to start running across the courtyard.

"Stop that girl!"

Some yelled from across the garden. A young woman wearing a peach coloured petit-coat and knee-high black leather boots was running straight towards Henry. She was holding her auburn curls in place, leaving only one lock free to brush against her soft, flushed skin. Tears escaped her eyes and flew off her face as she held her head in her hands. One of them bore a white faux-leather glove, while the other was left naked and pale, due to her tight grip on the second glove. Henry re-thought the fight, and came to realize that it was this girl that produced that loud slapping sound. He had slowed his sprint down to a light jog as the weeping girl neared his person. Just then, he heard a couple female voices behind him; they were chanting his name. As he turned around, sure enough, his vision adjusted to see a group of young women gawking and waving in Henry's direction. He smiled an irritated smirk, and waved half-heartedly in their direction. As he turned back to his original course, a pale blur ran straight into him, knocking him to the ground. He landed only a few inches shy of a concrete fountain that sat in the middle of the courtyard, displaying a stone captured moment of two lovers sharing a tender embrace. Henry sat up and rubbed the back of his head. He paused his actions as he took notice of the peach petit-coat girl that had the misfortune of running into him. She laid sprawled out on the grass beside the fountain; her glove had traveled away from her and was now sitting calmly on Henry's lap. The girl made a small movement and groaned a bit as she rolled onto her back. 

"Oh dear..."

Henry mumbled as he pushed himself off the ground. He carried her missing glove over to her and placed it gently onto her red cheek. Her golden coloured eyes flew open, and she took in a sharp breath of air as she asked Henry:

"Who are you?"


	4. Meeting

Jane blinked a couple of times after speaking because of the excessive amount of sunlight that the college was bathing in. She winced and grabbed her chest as she coughed vigorously. 

"Whoa now, it's all right, it's all right."

She felt a hand press against her shoulder, nit hard but with just enough pressure to feel comforting and warm.

"My name is Henry. Henry Trotter."

A young male's voice once again drowned out the birds' mid-day songs and the never-ending social chatter. Jane looked to her left and saw a dark grey, concrete fountain. She was puzzled as to where this voice was coming from. 

"Over here."

She heard the voice again, yet this time it was coming from the right of her. Her eyes traveled up to the blue sky above and finally rested on the the young man that knelt next to her. His dark green eyes explored her face and searched for an answer of some sort. 

"You're all right?"

He asked, unintentionally leaning closer to her. As henry leaned down over top of Jane, she noticed that his hair was quite messy. It was dark brown and wispy, sticking up in odd directions.

"I-i'm fine, really. I've been in situations much worse that this."

The image of Spiker and Sponge pushing her around flashed in Jane's mind. The sound of a relieved sigh broke her out of her reverie. The man, Henry, leaned back and let out a sort of chuckle. He ran a hand through his tousled hair, pushing it to one side, and smiled to the sky.

"Thank goodness, you scared me."

Jane scrambled to a seated position and patted down her pleated skirt, ridding it of any grass or dirt.

"Thank you.."

She mumbled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and looking down at the mess of books on the ground. 

"For what?"

He asked, sounding genuinely confused at Jane's thanks. He glanced to his side just in time to see the sun flash on Jane's hair, reflecting a brilliant red colour. She turned to face Henry, and the sun caught her eyes, accenting their golden glow. Henry's heart pounded in his chest with a new feeling. Passion? Nerves? He couldn't quite place it. But whatever it was, he liked it. 

"You know, for scaring off that horrid man."

"Oh, yes, of course."

He responded, not quite sure who she was talking about. The two sat in awkward silence for a few moments.

"Oh my goodness! How rude of me! I haven' even introduced myself."

Jane's outburst startled Henry and made him jump to the side a bit.

"My name is Jane Matthews. I came from out of town."

Henry stood at that, brushed off his black pants and rearranged his vest and brown overcoat. He picked up his horn-rimmed glasses, which had fallen off when he ran to Jane's side, and placed them snuggly onto the bridge of his nose. 

"Very nice to have run in to you my dear."

He reached a hand to Jane in hopes that she would take it. She did, and Henry pulled her from the ground. His pull my have been a bit too strong, because Jane tripped into Henry's embrace. He took hold of her shoulders and supported her fall. She began to shake, but not from fear or tears. She was giggling. Clearly it was contagious because Henry began to laugh along with her. The two pulled away from each other's embrace and stared into one another's eyes for a long moment. The world seemed to almost stand still as gold stared up at green. Jane broke their connection with another snicker. Her hand floated to Henry's confused, smiling face and her fingertip connected with the middle of his glasses. It never occurred to him, but Henry's glasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose. 

"Does that happen often?"

She asked, pulling her hand away and finishing one final chuckle. He nodded and smiled, giving her a silent sign of gratitude.

"Oh!"

Squeaked Jane as she began collecting her fallen books.

"Do you mid showing me to the girls' dorm? The men over there were not helpful at all."

A ruby glow appeared on her pale cheeks and Henry glanced to the men's side of the campus. The groups of men had disappeared, as it was opening ceremony time. The courtyard was empty,  other than him and Jane. But he caught a glance of one man glaring at Jane from around the corner of the building. He figured that he must be that 'horrid man' that Jane mentioned earlier. Henry made an obscene gesture to the man and he too disappeared. 

"Of course. I'd be delighted to, madam."

He started helping her pick up her many books. Suddenly, a loud, shocked gasping sound resonated in Henry's ears. 

"What is it? What happened?"

He asked Jane, who stood wide-eyed in front of the fast moving fountain. She pointed into the water at a book, who's pages had been ripped out and were now floating on the still surface of the water. The cover floated towards them, and Henry plucked it out of the water. 

"The Great Gatsby.. That's my favorite book!"

"Mine too..."

Mumbled Jane as she stuffed her books into her dark brown shoulder bag. 

"If you want, I can buy you a new copy?"

Henry chimed in, handing the soggy cover to Jane.

"No, no. It's quite all right. I'll just use a copy from the library for now."

She gathered the rest of the torn pages and discarded them into the nearest garbage can. She turned on her heel and flashed a smile at Henry that read 'let's go'. He caught up her, smiled, and escorted the lady to her dorm. He left her at the entrance the her building with a soft kiss of the back of her ungloved hand.  


	5. Happy Ending

Over the course of the next couple months, Henry and Jane had seen each other quite frequently. Their meetings were mostly academic, as the two learned that their majors were the same. Each day, either one of them would look slightly different. Perhaps it was simply a change in hair or clothes, but it could also be a change in emotion. A couple days after they had met, Jane paid a visit to the campus library. There she found two copies of The Great Gatsby, but one looked a bit different than the other. One held a piece of paper that jutted out of the pages like a thorn of the stem of a rose. She picked up the odd book and opened it to the page that housed the extra paper. On it was an arrow and some writing. The arrow hovered above the quote:

_"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,"_

_He told me,_

_"just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."_

Jane smiled, as this was her favorite quote; And this is because she grew up in poverty. She feels as though this quote gives respect to those who have not lived as privileged as others have. The note also gave a similar thought to what Jane felt towards the quote. It read:

"This is my favorite line. It has taught me to stop and think."

Henry's name was signed at the bottom of the note. Jane looked around the room and saw Henry gazing at her.She pointed to the note in her hand, smiled, and folded it into her pocket.

* * *

After a couple more study dates, Jane and Henry pronounced themselves as a couple. Although all they've ever really done is study together. One sunny morning, before a term final exam, the two had one last study session. Jane arrived at the library with her hair loosely pinned to the back of her head, and a silk dress that had been horribly mis-buttoned. Henry chuckled a bit and Jane glared knives at him, hitting herself in the eye with a loose curl. She recoiled and held her eye with anxious shakiness.

"Difficult morning, huh?"

She nodded and sat across from her sloppily dressed companion. Henry wore a wrinkled, black and blue sweater vest; And again his hair was messy, sticking up in different directions. Jane rolled her tired eyes and reached across the table. Her hand grazed through Henry's hair, pushing it neatly to the side. As she sat back down, she felt a hand on the back of her head. Henry had reached around and grabbed the lone pin that held her hair in place. A waterfall of dark auburn curls fell to the sides of her face and captured her beauty in a portrait. 

"You look better with your hair down."

Henry whispered into Jane's ear. He began to sit back down, but then caught Jane's face in his hand. He leaned further towards her and gently pressed his lips to hers. She, at first was a bit surprised, reached a hand up and placed it on his face while her eyelids closed. They broke apart and smiled to one another as their foreheads touched. 

"Let's get to studying so we can pass this test. Afterwards i'm taking you on a picnic." 

He said, letting go of the now blushing girl. 

"That sounds delightful."

She said, opening her textbook, smiling and re-doing her mismatched buttons. 

* * *

Several hours later, the two found themselves lying on an emerald hill complaining to each other about the exam. They laughed together about memorable classroom shenanigans and teacher mishaps. Henry stopped laughing as he remembered his initial plan. Over top of Jane's laughter, he spoke. 

"I need to ask you something Jane."

Henry interrupted in a more serious tone than he had originally planned. Jane's laughter died as he conversed. They both sat up, and a concerned expression arose on Jane's soft face. 

"Of course, anything. What is it?"

She answered, frowning slightly. Henry stood and pulled jane up along with him. He held her hands and gazed into her dark yellow eyes. 

"We've known each other for quite some time now, and in that time we've evolved from acquaintances to the most loving companions."

He fiddled with something in his pocket and knelt on one knee. Jane gasped quietly and her heart began pounding out of her chest.

"And I believe that we are meant to be, Jane..."

He opened a small black velvet box that contained a golden shimmering ring, embedded with a pale orange coloured pearl.

"Will you do me the honour of becoming Mrs. Jane Trotter?"

Tears welled up in Jane's eyes and she nodded vigorously.

"Y-yes!"

She managed to say through a mixture of gasps and joyous laughs. Henry's face lit up, and he placed the gold band on her finger. They embraced as the sun bean to set, illuminating the campus in a brilliant sea of orange and pink colours. Their silhouettes merged into one as they kissed under the flower covered tree, creating a moment that would last a lifetime. 

 


End file.
